Earlier this week, for instance, we saw Anonymous launch denial-of-service attacks against US government and entertainment industry websites, tricking innocent people into clicking on links which recruited their unwitting computers into the assault.

In addition, legitimate users of the MegaUpload service were up-in-arms that they no longer had access to files that they believed they had safely stored in the "cloud".

In response, a website called Anonyupload has sprung up, claiming to offer "100% free" and "100% anonymous" file hosting and file-sharing services.

Bizarrely, on the front page of the AnonyUpload website - it explains reasons why you shouldn't use it:

Anonyupload.com is a centralized service, when you upload files, they are stored in our hard drives, at a single location. And this is not good! It is the opposite of what the Internet is: decentralized.

...

There are many reasons why this is not good, the first is that some of you store personal information and files on machines which are not belonging to you, and that you do not have any control on. The second is that you are always going through the same wires, it means that someone could spy on it, monitors your activities, or decides to cut it off as it happened with megaupload.com. This can be avoided by using decentralized technologies, the first thing to do if you are interested in doing it, is to host your own content, on your own machines.

In a nutshell, don't use AnonyUpload - you're putting your trust and your data in someone else's hands, and it could mean you're being spied upon, and it could mean that you lose access to your data (as has happened to MegaUpload users).

But what a curious way to promote your new website. I think these AnonyUpload guys may have skipped a marketing lesson or two.

So, are there any reasons why AnonyUpload thinks I should use it?

Why anonyupload.com then?Because it is fun and technically interesting, keep in mind that it does not target to become a replacement to megaupload.com. If we have a good economic plan with donations, and that we do not fail as soon as the site is launched, we will do our possible to keep expanding it, but let's try to not get into a huge system that only works with money.

Hmm. "Fun and interesting". Not really, a good enough reason for me - and, I suspect, for others too. And is it really that fun and technically interesting to upload a file to someone else FTP's server? I don't think so.

For your safety, our infrastructure will be out of the U.S jurisdiction ( Russia ).

Oh well, that puts my mind at rest regarding safety.. I can just see myself reaching for my credit card to make a donation right now..

We have no way of knowing whether the Anonyupload site is genuine or not, and certainly Twitter accounts that have published messages from Anonymous in the past have denied any involvement in the site and urged people to stay away.

The lack of official spokespeople, or any kind of hierarchy, may be attractive for the people who act under the Anonymous banner, but it makes it very difficult to determine whether any action is *really* being done by Anonymous or individuals who are choosing to simply use the name as a flag of convenience.

Any statement or action which claims to come "from Anonymous" has to be questioned, as it's impossible to prove its veracity.

Put simply, any nutter can upload a message to the internet, or post a video on YouTube, or create a website, and claim to be "Anonymous". And there are those in the media who might report it as such, seeing as they can't prove otherwise.

Of course, it's perfectly possible that the AnonyUpload website is flying under a false flag - pretending to be backed by Anonymous, for reasons best known to itself, designed to ensnare the unwary.

My advice would be to avoid the Anonyupload site, and certainly not donate any money. You don't know whose pockets you might be lining, and as AnonyUpload's own blurb makes clear there are "many reasons" why their service is "not good".

You clearly have no understanding of the structure of Anonymous. Because 1 'spokesperson' says it's not affiliated with them doesn't mean it's not within Anon's sphere of operations. Anonymous is simultaneously everyone and noone. That's the whole point of it.

You know, 'anonymous' is a perfectly legitimate word commonly used by all kinds of people. Just because a name makes a reference to that word doesn't mean there is an actual or even claimed connection to your favorite "shadowy hacktivist group." In this case, there clearly isn't such a claim or connection.

You didn't understand anonymous. Everbody who launches something as anonymous is doing it as anonymous. It's a leaderless collective. That means I don't have to ask anybody for permissions to launch my project, nor can it be revoked to be from anonymous.

I would have hoped that you Graham, of all people, would be aware of what 'Anonymous' is and isn't.

Anonymous isn't a group, it doesn't have membership, nor official channels. There is no hierarchy and anyone who claims to represent 'anonymous' most certainly doesn't. Anyone who even claims to be a 'member' is grandstanding and is either a kid wanting to look tough, or a someone with ADHD trying to attract attention to themselves.

Almost every single journalist and researcher fails to understand this rather obvious, but crucial point: Anonymous is just an adjective that a number of individuals use, nothing more. If you want to call it anything, call it a social movement, not a group.

Once someone uses a pseydonym, or identifies themselves as belonging to any particular group, they cease being anonymous. In fact, most of us are disgusted by twitter accounts like @anonops, @anonymouspress, with 'official channels' and 'members of anonymous' speaking to the press, dropping their own pseudonyms around the place (eg. the retards on the various 'official anon' irc channels).

The 'group' that you actually see, is just an incredibly loose, dynamic collective of individuals, each with their own agenda, their own viewpoints, with the only thing consistently in common is that all wish to remain (and self-identify as) anonymous.The only time you hear of 'anonymous' doing anything is when a large number of those who act under the 'anonymous' banner share the same viewpoint.

'Anonymous' is just a convenient name for a globally-distributed, fault-tolerant, self-anonymized protest movement representing the will of (some subset of) the people.